A leader of the RPR party (Rassemblement pour la République), served as Foreign minister under Édouard Balladur, and then as Prime Minister. Elected as mayor of the city of Bordeaux in 1995, he wielded both local and national power. After public employees were found to illegally work for RPR, he was convicted in 2004 of the felony misuse of public funds, and barred from holding office for a decade. He was forced to resign his mayorship though an 18-month prison sentence was suspended. An appeal reduced both the suspended sentence and the ban from office to fourteen months. It remains unclear as to the legal status of Juppé's civil rights -- if he were to run for office, it is likely that legal manoeuvres could put a stop to any such attempt.